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A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES
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SPORTS
The Battalion I 2.9.15
4
PROVIDED
The women's basketball team was clipped in overtime Sunday at Mississippi State.
W. BASKETBALL
Blair falls to former assistant
as MSU rallies past A&M in OT
By Andre Perrard
In a top-20 showdown,
the women’s basket
ball team came up short in
Starkville to the No. 17 Mis
sissippi State Bulldogs 63-61
in overtime.
A&M was led by Courtney
Walker, who scored 25 points
with eight rebounds. The loss
snaps a two-game winning
streak for A&M.
The game saw another
streak end as well. After win
ning his first 12 games against
former assistants, A&M head
coach Gary Blair fell Sunday
against Bulldogs coach Vic
Schaefer, who was a Blair as
sistant from 1997 — when
both coached at Arkansas —
until taking the MSU job in
2011.
Khaalia Hillsman blocked
two shots and pulled down
13 rebounds, while Courtney
Williams added 14 points and
eight rebounds.
A couple of short runs late
in the first half helped A&M
build a 32-28 halftime lead.
There were four lead
changes in a minute and a half
span late in the game, when
A&M called timeout down
50-49. Out of the timeout,
Jada T erry hit a layup from a
Williams assist to give the Ag
gies a 51-50 lead.
A&M gained a 53-51 lead,
but the Bulldogs came back
to tie it at 53 with under one
minute to play.
Williams had a chance to
win at the buzzer, but the
shot came off the rim, and
the game went into overtime.
In overtime, Mississippi
State came back from a four
point deficit and Victoria
Vivians hit a huge 3-pointer
to give the Bulldogs a 62-61
lead with 52 seconds left in
the game.
With 21 seconds left.
Walker missed a jumper, and
after making one of two free
throws, the Aggies final shot
came up short.
A&M falls to 18-6 on the
year, and 6-4 in SEC play.
The Aggies return to Reed
Arena at 8 p.m. Thursday
night against Arkansas.
SOFTBALL
Purdue blanks Aggies to close
out season-opening tourney
Junior Katie Marks pitches in relief duty Sunday.
By Milkyas Gashaw
The No. 24 Texas A&M
softball team concluded
its five-game appearance at
the SoCal Collegiate Classic
with a 1-0 Sunday shutout of
Purdue. The Aggies finished
the classic with a record of
3-2 with a victory over No.
6 UCLA.
The Aggies opened the
season on Friday by getting
a 5-1 win against the Utah
Utes. This win was a little
sweeter considering head
coach Jo Evans played and
coached for from Utah.
The Aggies faced the
UCLA Bruins for the second
game of the doubleheader,
and the game quickly got out
of hand as A&M fell 13-0 in
five innings.
Saturday was a very differ
ent outcome for the Aggies,
as they won the first game of
the doubleheader against San
Diego State 9-5 and avenged
their loss from the day before
with a 6-4 victory over the
Bruins.
“I’m so proud of our kids
and the way we responded,”
Evans said. “They have a
lot of confidence coming
into this game, they started
swinging their bats and feel
ing better about themselves.
The most important thing to
come out of this, besides a
win, which was huge, but for
us to have what happened last
night and not let it phase us.”
The Aggies come home
this weekend to host the Ag
gie Classic at the Aggie Soft
ball Complex. First pitch is
at 3 p.m. Friday against Penn
State.
TRACK & FIELD
Senior class shines as A&M wins meet
By Seth Stroupe
The Aggie track class of 2015 was out in full
force at this weekend’s Aggie Invitational.
On Senior Day, Texas A&M’s seniors took
first place in 11 individual competitions to go
with two second-places and two third-places.
Their efforts allowed the Aggies to gener
ate large margins of victory on both sides, the
women winning by 73.5 points and the men
finishing more than 100 points ahead of second
place.
“We’ve got 26 seniors,” said head track coach
Pat Henry. “It’s a good group of seniors and
they showed that today. We had some people
do just a tremendous job today in certain areas.”
A crowd of 2,129 was on hand to honor one
of the most decorated classes A&M has ever had
in any sport. The Aggie track and field class of
2015 has two NCAA team championships, two
SEC Outdoor Championships, three Big 12
titles and one more season to potentially add to
that list. Seventeen of the seniors competed at
last year’s NCAA Championships, where three
won individual championships in their events.
Six were members of national champion relay
teams. Twelve are returning All-Americans.
After Saturday, two of them are now school
record holders.
Seniors Hillary Montgomery and Isaac Spen
cer both etched their names in the annals of
Aggie sports lore on Saturday with historic mile
performances on consecutive races. Montgom
ery ran a time of 4:43.98 seconds to break the
Vanessa Pena —THE BATTALION
Isaac Spencer (left) tied the school
record in the mile run Saturday.
\
old mark of 4:45.98 set by Natosha Rogers in
2012. Minutes later, Spencer claimed a share of
the school record in the men’s mile with a time
of 4:00.41.
“The mile Montgomery ran, if you had told
me she was going to run that three years ago, I
would have said, ‘No way,”’ Henry said. “That
young lady has worked so hard. That was just a
tremendous run for her. On the men’s side, for
Spencer to tie Henry Lelei’s mile time, that was
a huge run. The guy has just continued to get
better. I’m really proud of Spencer.”